Mark Dantonio begins his seventh campaign as Michigan State's head coach on Friday against Western Michigan. His Spartans went 7-6 last season. / Al Goldis/Associated Press

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

College football bonanza!

The Free Press continues its college football previews today with a look at the Big Ten Legends division. Come back all week for our daily previews, or check out freep.com for any that you missed: Saturday: State colleges. Today: Big Ten Legends. Monday: Big Ten Leaders. Tuesday: Michigan. Wednesday: Michigan State. Thursday: MAC. Friday: Around the nation.

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EAST LANSING — Read the offensive formation. Diagnose the play. React quickly. Shed the blocker. Make the tackle (and don’t target above the shoulder pads, by the way).

These are the generally accepted expectations of a defensive player. But they have many other considerations as the offense lines up to take a snap. If you’re blitzing, make it look like you aren’t. If you aren’t, make it look like you are. If your hands were on your thigh pads the last time you rushed, put them somewhere else the next time. Don’t lean. Don’t twitch. Keep your feet even with each other. And so on.

“That’s what we specialize at,” Michigan State linebacker Taiwan Jones said, “that’s what we work on every day. We try to make things not obvious, try to disguise them.”

And while the players try to mask their own intentions, MSU defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi tries to put all 11 in the same place on the field for widely varying assignments once the ball is snapped. Deception is a part of every defense, a necessity, but at MSU it is the stated key to taking this defense to another level.

The Spartans have ranked in the top six nationally in total defense in the past two seasons, but sacks, turnovers and victories fell off last season, and MSU realized midway through it that opponents had figured out a primary blitz call. With so much returning experience on the defense, coaches were able to install the full playbook early in camp and work hard on those details.

“The bottom line is this: Quarterbacks and offenses in this league are good enough, if they know what you’re doing, they’re gonna gain yards and they’re gonna make plays,” MSU linebackers coach Mike Tressel said. “And if you study the NFL, you realize you need to fool the quarterback to consistently stop offenses.

“So we’re trying to do that. We’re trying to do a better job of disguising. Do a better job of making things look the same. And make sure the quarterback does not know what is going on pre-snap. And if we do that, we think we can take another step.”

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Just as with performers in a ballet, the slightest misstep can throw everything else off.

“Your hand placement, how you’re aligned, or if you’re leaning, tilting,” MSU sophomore defensive end Shilique Calhoun said. “I mean, it’s a focal point every day to get out here and try to perform at the best and make sure you’re not giving anything away. By giving one thing away, you don’t know, you could be giving someone behind you away or the guy next to you away. It could completely ruin the play for you.”

Narduzzi said the Spartans “probably do as good a job of disguising as anybody,” but that doesn’t mean they don’t get smoked out at times.

The technology and hours that all teams put into film study practically ensure it. And film study isn’t restricted to studying an opponent’s tendencies. Self-scouting is tedious yet important work.

It yielded the realization last season that one of linebacker Max Bullough’s hand signals for a particular blitz had been deciphered by multiple opponents. Making a discovery like that in the middle of a season “is hard to do,” Narduzzi said, and the Spartans immediately switched up.

“ ‘Every time Max does this, we’re giving that away. Let’s not do that,’ ” Narduzzi said of the discussion at the time. “There’s all kinds of little things we’re trying to fix like that.”

Before every snap, Narduzzi said, the quarterback is scanning the defense looking for the “tell.”

“Somebody is telling the offense what to do,” he said. “Offenses are studying guys. They’re finding the guy, who’s telling us the truth on defense? If he looks like he’s blitzing because every time he’s blitzing he’s got his hands on his thigh boards, and when he’s not blitzing he’s got his hands in the air — well, they’re gonna find that on tape.”

As defensive players develop individually, they are focused on getting stronger, faster, improving their technique, improving their recognition of offenses — and lying with their body language.

Or as Calhoun describes it, giving the “poker face.”

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For senior linebacker Denicos Allen, that means never doing the same thing with his feet when he blitzes. Sometimes the right is in front. Sometimes the left is in front. Sometimes they’re even.

“I’m constantly changing it up,” he said.

Senior defensive tackle Tyler Hoover had a “leaning” problem early in his career as a defensive end, giving away “stunts” — sometimes ends twist inside while tackles attack outside — before the snap. MSU offensive linemen told him about it and helped him work on it in practice before it mattered in games.

MSU sophomore outside linebacker Ed Davis, a promising talent, has been a project for Narduzzi and Tressel.

“Ed Davis, he’s the worst liar ever,” Narduzzi said early in camp. “I mean, when he blitzes it looks one way. We’re watching tape and it’s like, ‘Ed!’ He didn’t go through spring ball and any time he fakes it, it’s like … ‘Here’s what it looks like when you blitz, here’s what it looks like when you don’t blitz. Make it look the same.’ ”

Davis must be getting better at it. He picked up four sacks in MSU’s scrimmage last weekend.

But it’s an ongoing process. Even Bullough, whom Narduzzi has called a “computer” and one of the best football minds he has coached, has found the acting part challenging.

“You can see it on film and say, ‘I can do that,’ ” Bullough said. “But you can’t.”

Not until you practice it, over and over again, anyway. At Michigan State, that’s guaranteed.

“It’s something that’s harder than you think,” Bullough said. “It’s harder than you think to fake a middle blitz, it’s just hard to act natural and do it. And that’s something we’ve worked a lot on, and I think we’ve gotten better at it.”

It starts at the top. Narduzzi has long emphasized the details of deception and this defense has five third-year starters, six senior starters and a combined 164 starts between the top 11. That’s a chance to hone those details, and perhaps add to the repertoire.

MSU toyed with a 3-4 defense three years ago in the preseason, but rarely used it during the 2010 season. The Spartans will continue to run primarily an attacking 4-3 defense, with three down linemen on passing downs.

Still, Narduzzi recently told the Free Press the Spartans will “go some with a three-man front out of our base defense” this season.